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Jesse Jackson Out Of Things To Protest



Mar 8, 2010 5 Comments ›› Erik Wong

jesse-jackson-bingo

AL.com:

MONTGOMERY — The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a march of about 200 people down Dexter Avenue to the Alabama Capitol to rally supporting bingo jobs in the state.

Jackson said the bingo debate ongoing in Alabama is a voting rights issue and a matter of economic justice. Counties voted for bingo, Jackson said, and the vote should be respected.

“We demand jobs and justice and voting rights,” Jackson said on the steps of the Alabama Capitol.

Jackson said before the march that when a person loses a job, it doesn’t just hurt that person’s household.

“It’s like an economic earthquake that affects a lot of people from the grocery store to the cleaners to the car shop,” Jackson said.

Rally leaders evoked Civil Rights era imagery during the march.Marchers sang, “We shall overcome” and the demonstration paused to pray in front of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, the church once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

This weekend people are also commemorating the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the violent 1965 clash between civil rights protesters and state troopers in Selma.

Marchers included employees from VictoryLand and Country Crossing, two of the state’s large bingo casinos. Country Crossing in Houston County has been closed for over a month to avoid a raid by Gov. Bob Riley’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling. VictoryLand reopened Friday.

Marchers carried signs ranging from, “Bob took my job” to “Bingo jobs let us feed our children.”

“It’s been rough. Unemployment doesn’t pay enough. I am a thousand dollars behind in my mortgage, child support, everything else,” John Thomas, 45, of Dothan who had been working as a bar back at the Wiregrass casino.

“There ain’t nobody hiring much. There were a lot of people who didn’t have jobs in Houston County until Country Crossing opened,” Thomas said.

Riley contends electronic bingo machines are illegal and not what was intended when voters approved constitutional amendments allowing charity bingo operations in the state.


  • mike3481

    If the first sentence doesn’t make you laugh out loud, well then…

    :gun: :shock:

  • jasjfarrell

    How can the Alabama government allow people to lose their hard earned money gambling at bingo???

    Don’t they know those games are fixed?

  • YEMROM

    this is what happens when you have a President that cant sell watermelon…

  • http://www.bootparkergriffith.com The Sentinel at the Gate

    Geez, I was hoping to never see Rev. Jackson in this state again. But bam, he’s baaaack! And making the case that his “folks” need these gambling jobs in Alabama. After all, when the Obongo lottery fails, these people are going to need Hope coming from somewhere – a slot machine.

  • BradW (the Infidel)

    Tomorrow’s headline will read along the lines of

    “Jesse Jackson and 8 preschoolers march to protest lack of variety in Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich flavors”

    Just goes to prove, his irrelevance is becoming better understood